would be obliged if you would not express it here. It is not the way we believe-or behave. Zillah was fond of this young man and saw him more frequently than we desired. It was inevitable, since he moved in the same circles. Before he became too enamored of her and overstepped propriety, or we unintentionally encouraged hopes in him that would not be fulfilled, we went for a short holiday to Crickieth, in North Wales." She forced herself to smile. "By the time we returned he had formed an attachment for another young lady, altogether more suitable to his age and situation. The word passion is far too strong for such a childhood fondness."
Her words fell in silence, as if they all knew they were a gilding of the truth to such a point as to amount to a lie. Zillah was the only one who seemed unconcerned.
"What has it to do with Keelin's death?" she persisted. "Hugh wouldn't have harmed anyone over me, no matter how ardent he seemed at the time. He said a lot of things he didn't mean. He was hotheaded, but there was no real violence in him."
"Of course there wasn't!" Delphine said urgently, looking at Zillah with warning in her eyes, then at Sacheverall. "It was all very young and innocent, and over with years ago."
"No, it wasn't," Zillah contradicted "He went on writing to me..." She disregarded Delphine's obvious anger. "I collected the letters from a friend. And there is no use asking me who, because I shall not tell you..."
"You will do as you are told, young lady!" Delphine snapped, moving forward as if to restrain her physically.
"Was he jealous over your betrothal to Melville?" Lambert asked, holding up his hand to Delphine and looking steadily at his daughter, his expression hard and anxious. "Does he still care for you enough to have hated Melville for her insult to you? Tell me the truth, Zillah. He will not be blamed for anything he did not do, but I will not allow Keelin Melville's death to go unavenged if anyone else is responsible for it but herself. We may be speaking of murder. I will have no false loyalties or soft ideas of romance. Your loyalty is to the truth, girl, before all else. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Papa." She did not flinch. "I wrote to Hugh long after Mama took me to Wales, but I never saw him again, except by chance, and never alone. He says that he still cares for me. Of course, I don't know whether that is true or just his idea of romance. But he wrote very well to me when the betrothal was announced, even if there was some regret in it." She shook her head as if almost certain. "I cannot believe he has it in him to have hurt Keelin, whatever he felt." Her voice was very earnest and she ignored everyone but her father. "He wrote that no matter how it grieved him to see me marry someone else, he still wished me happiness. I believe he meant it." For the first time the shadow of a smile touched her lips. Something sweet had been remembered and it came through even present pain.
Sacheverall stared at her. Perhaps without being aware of it he took a step backward, opening a greater distance between them. The eagerness had gone from his face. Delphine had seen it. Zillah still had her back to him.
"I shall speak to you later about your disobedience," Lambert said to her, but the coldness in his voice was pretense; there was no echo of it in his eyes. "It is up to Mr. Monk whether he chooses to investigate young Gibbons or judges it to be worth pursuing. I have engaged him to learn the truth of Melville's death."
"That, of course, is your choice," Sacheverall said with noticeable chill. "I have discharged my duties in the matter. My final advice to you"-he looked at Lambert, not at Zillah-"is that you consider the matter ended and resume your lives and put it from your mind. You conducted yourselves both legally and morally in a perfectly upright manner and have nothing with which to reproach yourselves. Private mistakes of the past are no one else's concern. I shall not mention them, and I presume Monk is bound by the same constraints, although of course I cannot answer for him."
"You don't need to!" Monk said savagely. "I consider Miss Lambert's reputation to be